Mai Khôi and the Dissidents at the Original Pittsburgh Winery

Mai Khôi founded Mai Khôi and the Dissidents in Vietnam in 2017 as a vehicle to perform her genre-busting songs protesting government censorship and police violence. The band performed secretly at underground shows in Hanoi until threats from the Vietnamese government forced the band to change their name, then ultimately dissolve.

Following Khôi’s exile to the United States, she reformed the band with local Pittsburgh musicians while continuing the group’s radical mission. The American iteration of Mai Khôi and the Dissidents is an eclectic and experimental jazz-pop quintet that’s as likely to launch into a protest song or collective improvisation as a lullaby or love ballad.